The Threshing Floor of Araunah

TotalVictory wrote:Which brings to mind a question which I’d love to hear you address at some point (unless you already have and can direct me to it…)What then of the heavy use of sacrifice language/imagery in the OT and NT?? Perhaps in a future post…

I've no great answers. But I generally start with the work of Rene Girard on this subject. I don't want to lecture you if you know it well, but that's where I start. Sacrifice in the OT is a developmental process of slowly extracting God from scapegoating violence (e.g., early in the OT sacrifice is central but is strongly criticized and marginalized by the later prophetic tradition). That process, begun in the OT, is brought to completion in the cross of Jesus which exposes sacrifice, finally, for what it really is: humans involved in scapegoating violence. Thus, the cross is the sacrifice that ends all sacrifices.